BUTLER TWP — Students at Northwest and Summit elementary schools will eat for free next school year, following a vote by the Butler Area School District school board Monday, May 8.

Board members also decided Monday to appoint two people to the school board at its meeting May 22 to replace Bill Halle and Regenold Griffin, who resigned.

Brian White, district superintendent, said the two schools now qualify for free school breakfast and lunch through the Community Eligibility Provision. He said the district’s food provider, Aramark, recommended the board approve the motion because the cost of lunch is reimbursed to the district through federal money and the company’s revenue would not change.

“This does not mean the school is impoverished or needs free lunch, but cost-wise it’s just as effective to provide everyone lunch because volume increases,” White said.

The board voted unanimously to have breakfast and lunch free at those schools, which will be effective at the start of the 2023-24 school year.

The board also agreed that the school district should not start a new application period to appoint a person to fill the second board seat that opened since the end of April with the resignation of Halle last week.

“I would propose we fill this position the same way and at the same time that we plan to fill the other,” said school board president Jennifer Cummings.

Both Griffin and Halle’s terms expire at the end of the year, so the appointed board members may only serve for around seven months.

White said the board received three applications with letters of interest for Griffin’s seat, which opened with his resignation at the end of April. Anyone interested in filling the position can send a letter of intent to board secretary catherine.melder@basdk12.org by May 18.

White also said the new wing at the high school, which is 19,000 square feet and will have 10 classrooms, is still under construction with no solid estimated time of completion.

However, some of the classrooms were cleared to use for student testing.

“Testing did occur in certain classrooms, we could have occupancy for certain classrooms for the purpose of testing,” White said. “There will be Keystone testing next, but I think the intention is to keep using those rooms for testing until we finish off the school year.”

White said district administrators have heard several completion dates from the contractor working on the project, and he would be happy if the classrooms were completed by July.

“My current dream is, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if the construction stuff was gone by graduation?’” White said. “If we’re celebrating the Fourth of July and we’re moving the trailers out, I guess I’ll be happy.”